BIG news! I got a male for Isis Redbelly! In truth, this was a real bad time for me to get a bird because my doctor says I have lupus (I am going back in half an hour for more bloodwork) and, taking into consideration my COPD, the specialist might tell me I have to get rid of all my birds. But I had been looking for a mate for her since July/2014, when she first came to me and her previous owner said he was willing to take her back along with a mate if need be (although, at this point in time, I don't see this as a certainty any longer because he is now going to be working from home and plans on traveling). I saw an ad in CL that was offering a male redbelly (it had pictures on it and I could confirm that it was, indeed, a male redbelly) in exchange for a reptile (can you believe it?!) so I sent him an email asking him if he would be willing to sell the bird instead for cash and buy a reptile with it and he said yes. His wife said he bought this bird from another guy but I suspect there is something fishy because he was only asking for $250 and he reduced it to $200 without me even asking for a discount. I was real complicated today because I was dropping two feral cats for neutering at 7:45 am, have a doctor's appointment at 2:30 pm, had taken in a blind feral kitten last night which I have to bottle-feed AND, to put the icing on the cake, I hardly slept a wink last night because one of my dogs (the idiot golden retriever) threw up all night long (and I am not exaggerating on this, I got up three times and my husband got up another three to clean up the messes) so I needed driving into Brooklyn from NJ like I needed a hole in the head! But the fact that he was willing to exchange the bird for a reptile had me so worried (obviously NOT bird people -to say the least, right?) that I dragged my husband out of bed at 6:30 am (I got up at 5:30) so we could get everything done and still have enough time to go pick him up.

I really do not think this people knew what they had because redbellies are not that easy to come by and, when they do, they are pretty expensive but although the bird has no leg band (suspicious suspicious suspicious), he looks young -beak is the teeny tiniest bit overgrown (he was been free-fed a cheap seed mix, mostly sunflowers) but his feet look very good (no claws or toes missing or crooked) and, although his plumage looks a bit dull (the red in his belly is more orange than actual red and the turquoise in the body is muted, same as the grey on his head which doesn't have the 'steel' shine to it that should) he is not plucking. His wings are clipped but he can fly and he regaled us with, at least, 8 different kinds of whistles as well some words (we couldn't understand them but it was a soft man's voice) on the trip home. The man's wife did not know his age or even his name (ay ay ay!) so I begged her to ask her husband to send me a little e-mail with, at least, his name. He came with no cage but I already had one ready and waiting next to Isis' and he is now perching in the middle of it and his head seems to have been permanently sideways so he can look at Isis And I don't blame him one bit because Isis is one pretty lady!

The doctor just took more blood for a test called ANA cascading reflex or something. This test is supposed to tell exactly what type of autoimmune disease I have. I thought that the test was to determine if I really have lupus or not but my doctor said yes and no when I asked him. Apparently, the autoimmune disease is not in question, what they need to find out is the type and, if it is Lupus, the subtype (I didn't even know there were subtypes!) although my doctor thinks it is lupus and not rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma or any of the other diseases that could be. Once the results come in, I have to go to the specialist with all the paperwork my doctor will give me. I am not worried about having an autoimmune disease and, even if they tell me that I have to get rid of the birds I don't see myself doing it but we will see...

In any case, the plot with the redbelly thickens. I sent the previous owner an email asking the bird's name and age, if he knew it, and he said the name was Baby and that he was 10 or 11 months old - which I know NOT to be true because his eyes are already red so he has to be, at least, 2 years old! PLUS, the wife, who claimed not to know the name of the bird (how can you not know the name of the only pet you have in the house?!) said that it was a 'weird' one - Baby is a weird name?!

But he is a sweetheart! He came out of his cage this morning and took a couple of flights between cages, he stepped up from the floor to my hand and onto a stick from the top of the cages with no problem AND lo and behold, he is eating the gloop!!!! I don't remember ever having a bird that ate gloop from day one so, obviously, this bird has been fed either gloop or something similar in the past -and I know it wasn't these people.

I am more and more convinced that somebody either stole or found this bird lost, cut off his leg band so he would not be identified and sold it. But looking for the owner would be impossible now because I don't know how long ago or where this might have happened...

Ahhh, but GCCs are produce eaters BIG TIME because of their natural diet been mostly fruits... but you still lucked out because I know for a fact they only get seeds in Petco! Amazons are also real fast to 'catch on' to the gloop but none of my other pois took to it so fast so I still think he belonged to somebody who took real good care of him in the past. And, yes, I will ask them to look for a chip but, unless the previous owners had it put there, microchips are not something bird breeders would do so the possibility is kind of remote, I would think.

Pajarita, Lupus is a common name that is recognized by everyone that it is an illness. I do not have Lupus. I was hard to diagnose. My autoimmune type was told to me but I was so drugged up at that time that I only remember it starts with a C. That was many years ago and I can't even find the doctor that diagnosed.If you say Lupus people recognize that it is an illness. Of course they don't know what it is.I explain autoimmune to be a person's immune system attacking that persons organs, joints and skin. It also makes that person weak. Multiple of my organs have been attacked and damaged by it.

Actually, Liz, the results from the blood test came back and, according to my doctor, the antibodies that are only produced when you have an autoimmune disease are there but they don't know what is causing my body to produce them because the test they always use for that came back positive for the ANAs but inconclusive as to why they are there... so now I have to go to the specialist and see if he/she can figure it out.

Birdwoman, I am very much aware of the risk I am taking but, in truth, I wasn't planning on taking in another bird and this new one caught me at a real bad time. It's not only the health questions that have not been yet answered but also the fact that I don't have a single free room where to quarantine him! I have three cats in the attic (two large rooms) because two of them are old and they were getting stressed out by the young ones and had began to pee outside the litter box, then I have the feral kittens in my bedroom (by the way, I've already adopted four of them out and have prospects for the other two - YAAAYYYY!), the young cats stay in my dressing room in the morning while the birds are out flying and that's it when it comes to rooms with doors because the downstairs is all open. And, to put the icing on the cake, I found a stray dog on Tuesday afternoon driving back from the supermarket and another one yesterday driving home from Home Depot! Unbelievable! A friend of mine says 'they find you' but, like I tell her, it's not that they find me, it's that I stop the car, park, get out, catch the dog and try to find the owner every time I see a dog walking by itself on the street! In their cases, I am not looking for the owners because the one I found Tuesday is a Min Pin that was not fixed so she is either pregnant or her puppies have just been taken away (I have an apt for her at my vet for tomorrow to check her out). She was skin and bones - I had never seen a dog that skinny, I swear! She looked deformed because her rib cage would stick out to the sides from the emaciation... I have never seen a dog eat so much! She had three meals in 6 hours and the portions were the same I give my 70+lb golden retriever and she continues looking for food everywhere, even when she is full - the poor, poor thing! AND both her tail and ears are docked and they were NOT done by a professional because the edges are uneven and raggedy. And, yesterday, the guy doing the birdroom floor and moldings needed more wood so we drove to Home Depot to pick it up and, on the way back, there is this Yorkie, all matted and filthy, and completely terrified to the point that he was showing his teeth, the poor thing! He has been laying on a dog bed between the wall and the kitchen island since noon and hasn't moved from the spot once in all this time! I put the food and water in front of him and he eats and drinks and these are the only times he sits up, the rest of the time he is laying down without moving. But he no longer shows his teeth and I am now able to touch him (which I do every hour or so and tell him he is a good boy) and he got up during the night to pee and poop. Now, as soon as he starts moving around and feels more at ease, I will groom him - he needs it VERY badly as his hair is filthy and completely matted all the way to the skin and his nails must be 2 inches long! My husband doesn't even know about the yorkie but he will find out in a couple of hours when he comes home from work... I'll tell you how that goes!

Aside from that, the birds are all doing great and I'll tell you about them later.

You are a saint pajarita, you need to start thinking about your self because where would all your critters be if you weren't around or become to sick to care for them. My mom told me before she passed away that I can't save the world , and she is right. I wish I lived closer to you I would help !!! What are you going to do if the COPD gets out of control ? Do you work hand in hand with a rescue for the cats and dogs ? My mother in law has lupus and it is not a good situation. You take care and time for yourself. If I can help let me know. How about some pics of the too's. You could e-mail them B W. P.S. I'm going to send some to you.

As soon as the birdroom is painted I will get Lara (daughter who lives only 10 minutes away from me) to come over and take pictures of everybody, birds, dogs and cats and I'll post them in this thread. The guy finished the floor and the 'moldings' (they are not real moldings, they are just boards put all the way around for the birds to chew on) so all it needs now is painting, hang a couple more platforms, out new FS light bulbs and branches everywhere and it will be ready.

I am not going to keep these two dogs but I can't give them to any rescue yet (yes, I have two dog and cat rescues that I network with, one in Jersey and one in Pennsylvania - I also have two bird rescues that I network with, one in upstate NY and the other in NJ). The min pin looks to be pregnant and the yorkie (?) is a mess both physically AND emotionally so I can't give them out just yet but they are not staying. The feral kittens (THANKFULLY!) are all been adopted out so that is a huge weight off my shoulders because I was so worried about them with the winter coming -now I can begin to trap the ferals and have them fixed. My dogs, cats and birds are really no trouble to me -not because they are not work because they are (I just finished grooming the shih-poo, the maltipoo and the corgi/American eskimo and I do 25 cages a day!) but because they all know the routines so well that everything runs smoothly with them... it's the new dogs that are a problem right now because they pee and poop all over the place Thankfully, my husband, big pain in the neck that he is, is more bark than bite and when he saw the new dog, he started on his usual rant about me having too much work as it is and all the extra expenses they will create, etc. But, an hour later, he was crouching down in front of the dog talking to hima nd worrying that he didn't know what to do to make him feel better (I knew this was exactly what was going to happen because he is a softie when it comes to suffering animals ).